Mew's Views: Tourney Time!
Senior midfielder Sam Mewis is back for season two of Mew's Views. Mewis helped lead UCLA to its first-ever NCAA Championship in 2013 and returned for her senior season with the added arsenal of experience playing with the full U.S. Women's National Team under her belt. Mewis, the 2014 Pac-12 Player of the Year and ESPNW's National Player of the Year, has scored 88 points on 29 goals and 30 assists in her UCLA career.
With a huge 2-0 over USC last Friday, thanks to two goals by senior forward Kylie McCarthy, we retained our #1 ranking as the tournament selection show approached. The game itself was one of our most exciting this year. More than 10,000 soccer fans showed up to the Coliseum to watch the game. Katelyn Rowland officially tied the NCAA record for career shutouts and only needs one more to hold the #1 spot on her own. We clinched the Pac-12 title for ourselves and left the regular season undefeated.
The Pac-12 yearly awards also came out this week, and UCLA is boasting winners in four of the five categories. Amanda Cromwell deservingly took home Coach of the Year, while record-setting Katelyn Rowland received Goalkeeper of the Year, and Abby Dahlkemper was awarded Defender of the Year. Our back line has allowed only four goals against all season. I feel very confident with players like Katelyn and Abby behind me, not to mention Caprice Dydasco, Megan Oyster, and Ally Courtnall, who have all been stellar defenders (and even goal-scorers!) for us this year. Other players receiving honors were Sarah Killion (first-team), Ally Courtnall and Taylor Smith (second-team.)
Speaking of the Pac-12, our conference has the highest number of teams participating in the NCAA Tournament this year and two #1 seeds in UCLA and Stanford. This is great news for the Pac-12 as a conference and really demonstrates its competitiveness on a national scale.
Heading into the selection show, the team was excited and anxious to see our draw. Everyone got together at Barney’s Beanery in Westwood to watch the show. We are really honored to be a part of the NCAA Tournament and cannot wait for our home game this Friday against USD. We are definitely taking the tournament one game at a time and are focused solely on how to prepare for San Diego.
Megan Oyster, Cassie Sternbach, and I were involved in a video about the Women's World Cup being held on turf next summer. You can watch the video here. You'll see us around 3:29.
Unfortunately, my grandfather passed away last week. I had the opportunity to go home and be with my family and attend the funeral services to honor the 88 years that my grandfather lived. I was very grateful for the emotional support from the team, staff and UCLA administration. My grandfather had the opportunity to be a professional baseball player but chose to join the Navy instead in 1944. He then returned home and spent 63 years married to my grandmother in Massachusetts. His legacy is something that I will try to honor for the rest of this postseason and the rest of my life.
Week 6 of our 10-week quarter system is almost over, and all of the seniors are trying to slow down the clocks. While many of us plan to enter the NWSL draft, it may be a few years before we are all together again after this December. The friendships that we have formed over the past 3 1/2 years have really impacted who I am as a person. Even my relationships with the underclassmen, who I haven’t known as long, are extremely strong. As the end of my time at UCLA approaches, I think that this tournament is a perfect opportunity to create a lasting impression on the program. The seniors have so much motivation to make the most of this opportunity we have over the next few weeks, and it is carrying over to the rest of the team. We are so excited for Friday!